19 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 49.0 ms ] thread
Did you guys use any particular toolset to build the game? Looks fun.
Yep, we used Unity. It gets a hard time sometimes, but if you treat it just like you would any other toolset/language/tool, it really is pretty great. It's also pretty easy to jump into, and have something running quick (Hello World style), though definitely takes some time to get used to the different paradigms and the "Unity Way".
Just don't start wanting users to chat with emojis and you're fine.
I may be (probably am) missing the reference -- but my first instinct would be to check out TextMeshPro for something like that, especially if you want to keep draw calls low/when performance is a supreme concern.

Apologies if it's just a reference I totally missed though! =)

That looks obsessively detailed. How well does the simulation scale? Can I simulate a Changi or a Dubai?
Unfortunately we're hitting some scaling issues, we're exploring some ways around them, but even in "clean slate" tests we're struggling to exceed ~10k agents in motion without framerates starting to dwindle. We've also very quickly learned that multi-threaded development is, or can be, quite difficult & tedious. Things can go wrong in even more ways than we'd have imagined, though it has been a fun challenge too.

Right now, players with higher-end computers are reporting that they're able to push ~3k or so "pax" (passenger agents) before framerates start to get choppy.

When we receive save game files with bugs to look into, and we load them up and see 4-5k+ pax, we cringe a bit (and it's even worse w/ all our logging on, etc). ;-)

As far as details go, the algorithm for passenger needs/desires/selection is pretty neat -- it uses "delta need scoring", it's quite a robust approach & also a decently-scalable system.

Do you use a thread per agent? What does an agent map to closer to the wire?
If you don't mind my asking, which parts of the agent logic tend to be the profiling hot spots when you have several thousand of them? Do you end up running into a combinatorial explosion somewhere?
My impression was always that Maxis/EA were very aggressive legally against anyone else publishing games with "SimX"- style titles.

Is this not the case? Or maybe they're not as aggressive on this front as they used to be?

It's the one thing I can't talk about publicly, as much as I'd really, really love to. All I can really say is that we're in the process of securing the trademark right now; and we definitely obtained counsel's advice, far before deciding on & moving forward with the name. =)
Ouch. Get better council...
Can you talk about the "pivot" from web dev? Would be interested in learning why you pivoted, how you decided to pivot into creating a game, etc.

Game looks cool though.

I'm curious about this as well. I feel like there is a lack of context. Who is this? What does this have to do with web dev?. The company is LVGameDev LLC, but I can't find anything about them beside that they made this game. Is there a previous HN posting I should be reading as well?
Me and my partner are just long-time, avid HN readers...

Will respond to the parent post shortly as well, just want to make sure I take enough time to answer well/thoroughly. =)

Awesome! Played Airport Tycoon a bunch as a kid, just need to see if it has the distorted PA sound effects too, haha
This looks very, very similar to Prison Architect, down to the builders, build menus, etc. Are you worried about a backlash from PA fans?
I think these are free assets, Rimworld looks a lot like Prison Architect, and I have seen other indie games with the same assets.

Why would PA fans be upset? There's a whole other game to experience now, with a similar look and feel to their favourite...

No, that's wrong. PA developed their own assets.

Tynan Sylvester (the Rimworld developer) made his own art, intended as placeholder art, minorly inspired by Prison Architect. The games however are extremely different when it comes to mechanics.

This game however seems to directly copy a large chunk of PA's gameplay.

This is an amazing technical achievement. I hope it's also a successful business. Congratulations on the algorithms.